In the Northern Song Dynasty, Bianjing.
While Huang Rong was puzzled by Li Qingzhao’s lack of progress, Li Qingzhao was still immersed in cultivation.
Of course, this wasn’t because her talent and comprehension were inferior to Li Shimin and Huang Rong, making her slower at refining pills and reaching the Grandmaster level.
How could someone known as ‘The Greatest Female Talent of All Time’ possibly have poor comprehension?
In fact, Li Qingzhao's speed in refining pills was even faster than Li Shimin's.
However, as she refined the pills and her cultivation was about to breakthrough to Grandmaster, a mysterious feeling arose within her.
She felt a gaze from an unknown being, watching her from the depths of the unknown.
At the same time, she felt a sense of enlightenment.
The moment that gaze fell upon her, she faced two choices:
One, breakthrough to the Grandmaster realm under that gaze, earning the recognition of the being behind it for her practiced ‘Martial Dao’ system.
Two, temporarily hold back her breakthrough, seize the fleeting opportunity that appeared in the moment before reaching the Grandmaster, and use the ‘Martial Dao’ as a foundation to build a more suitable path of cultivation for this world, under the watchful gaze.
If it had been anyone else, faced with this mysterious and vague feeling, they might not gamble on such an uncertain probability. Instead, they would have directly broken through to the Grandmaster realm according to the existing methods.
Of course, if it had been anyone else, it would have been incredibly difficult to seize the fleeting opportunity that appeared in the instant before reaching the Grandmaster, under the gaze of that unknown being.
But she was no ordinary person, she was Li Qingzhao, who achieved eternal fame in an ancient world that was unkind to women.
The Li Qingzhao who wrote ‘Ci Lun’, arguing that ‘Ci’ should be ‘a separate school’, distinct from poetry and prose, existing alongside them.
The Li Qingzhao who, even when writing Ci, wanted to differentiate it from poetry and prose, making ‘Ci’ stand alone as an independent genre.
What kind of choice would she make, once she saw the chance to forge a path of cultivation uniquely her own?
The answer was obvious - she chose to temporarily hold back her breakthrough.
Under the gaze of that unknown being, she chose to take this opportunity, perhaps only once in her life, to leverage the power of the world and build a path of cultivation more suited to her world, using ‘Martial Dao’ as her foundation, a path that would belong to them.
Thus...
While Li Shimin had reached the Bone Tempering Realm, surpassing the world's upper limit in the Tang Dynasty.
While everyone in the group was disturbed by the messages and jumped in to chat.
She suppressed her breakthrough, borrowing the power of the ‘world's will’, using the ‘Martial Dao’ she had just cultivated as a foundation, and started to design a more suitable path of cultivation for this world.
Although she had only been exposed to the ‘Martial Dao’, the only path of cultivation she knew.
Li Qingzhao had still read some fantastical short stories and novels.
Whether it was the gods and monsters in short stories or the Martial Dao she had cultivated in reality.
It seemed they all relied on some unique power to display their abilities.
Gods and immortals needed mana to perform supernatural abilities and spells.
The foundation of Martial Dao cultivation was internal force, True Qi, and True Essence.
So, to create a new system of cultivation, first she needed to decide what kind of power this system would cultivate.
Internal force?
True Qi?
If she continued to use internal force and True Qi as the basis for cultivation.
Then, it seemed there was no need to create a new system, wouldn't it be better to directly cultivate the existing ‘Martial Dao’?
Therefore, after abandoning the existing internal force and True Qi, what kind of power should she use as the core of the cultivation system she wanted to create, one suited to this world?
She lived in the Song Dynasty, which her friends in the group referred to as the ‘Northern Song’.
This era had many drawbacks, many things to criticize.
But every era has its own unique characteristics, and the Northern Song naturally had its own.
From the perspective of Li Qingzhao, a ‘talented woman’ who had studied poetry and literature since childhood, and was skilled in both, the biggest characteristic of this era was the literary flourish of the Song Dynasty.
Here, there was Su Zizhan, who wrote ‘Ask the Moon’, and Qin Shaoyou, who wrote ‘A Golden Wind and Jade Dew’.
There was Yan Tongshu, who wrote ‘The Flowers Fall Uncontrollably’, and Liu Sanbian, who wrote ‘Even Though My Belt Grows Wider, I’ll Have No Regrets’.
The Song Dynasty today and the Tang Dynasty of the past, in terms of literary flourishing, might be equal in different ways.
But observing the 140 years of the Song Dynasty, it was clear that they achieved ‘the ruler should rule the world with the scholars and officials’.
This was perhaps the best era for scholars and officials.
Thinking this way, Li Qingzhao gradually found the answer in her heart.
The most suitable cultivation system for this world, the most suitable cultivation system for the Song Dynasty, perhaps should be centered around ‘scholars’.
Then, what kind of power would be the most suitable power for ‘scholars’?
What kind of system would be the most suitable system for ‘scholars’?
The power gained from books!
With the support of the ‘world’s will’, Li Qingzhao, who had always had excellent comprehension, quickly clarified her approach to building a cultivation system.
Since it was power gained from books, this power should be related to reading.
Literary Talent?
Literary Qi?
No!
Wrong!
Reading can gain power, but not all readers should be able to obtain power.
Power has no inherent goodness or evil, it becomes good when used for good, and it becomes evil when used for evil.
If it was left unchecked, allowing evil people to gain power, it would only bring more suffering to the innocent.
Therefore, this power should come from reading, but there needs to be constraints on how people gain power and who can gain power.
Then... Righteous Qi!
Almost instinctively, Li Qingzhao thought of the phrase ‘I am good at nurturing my Righteous Qi’.
If this power gained from books was Righteous Qi, it could only be obtained by those who cultivated Righteous Qi.
At least, it would prevent most people with bad intentions or those who would do evil from obtaining power, wouldn't it?
If all the officials and military personnel in the court cultivated Righteous Qi.
Perhaps this Song Dynasty, which had many flaws and was criticized by many, could be saved?
Thinking this way, Li Qingzhao directly set the foundation for the cultivation path of this world - Righteous Qi.
Having established the core of cultivation in this world, Li Qingzhao used the ‘Martial Dao’ she had cultivated as a blueprint to begin creating this world's extraordinary system.
The most important aspect of an extraordinary system is the core of power, that is, the main power this system cultivates.
After determining the core of power, details such as how to divide realms and how to apply this power are secondary, falling into the realm of self-development and evolution.
Therefore, Li Qingzhao wasn’t worried that the cultivation system of ‘Righteous Qi’ would be constrained by the ‘Martial Dao’ as its foundation.
Zhang San used Righteous Qi to cultivate the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, while Li Si used Righteous Qi for paper tactics and poetry, gaining the support of celestial forces in both.
These are just different applications of ‘Righteous Qi’.
So, after confirming Righteous Qi.
Li Qingzhao directly condensed a stream of ‘Righteous Qi’ using the ‘power of literature’ she had accumulated from years of reading.
She circulated and strengthened this Righteous Qi based on the training methods of ‘Martial Dao’.
As Li Qingzhao circulated Righteous Qi for the first time.
The literary spirit that had accumulated in Bianjing for over a hundred years seemed to find its outlet and immediately surged towards Li Qingzhao, the pioneer for the world.
For a moment, Li Qingzhao's ‘Righteous Qi’ began to strengthen at a visible rate.
It quickly surpassed the limits of the ‘Martial Dao’'s later stages, reaching a realm comparable to the Innate Stage, Grandmaster, and even Grandmaster.
After the Righteous Qi strengthened to a level comparable to the ‘Martial Dao’ Grandmaster.
The literary spirit of Bianjing continued to pour into Li Qingzhao's body, unabated.
At the same time, the chat group finally rang with a long-awaited notification sound:
【Ding! Li Qingzhao has used Martial Dao as a foundation to create the ‘Righteous Qi’ path of cultivation, breaking through the world's upper limit.
The world’s will favors Righteous Qi, opening up a path to extraordinary power in the world.
Li Qingzhao receives attention from the world’s will, her luck rises, she ascends from Child of Destiny to Master of Heaven and Earth.】
【Ding! Li Qingzhao's Righteous Qi has opened up the path to extraordinary power in the world, the world's will grants her a strand of World Origin.】
【Ding! Li Yi's Martial Dao has provided a reference for Li Qingzhao to create Righteous Qi, making a significant contribution to the opening of the path to extraordinary power.
In appreciation of the guidance from the Celestial Venerable, the world’s will grants a strand of World Origin to the Celestial Venerable.】